MUSIC

Those who love torturing customers and co-workers alike might have to listen to the science. The fact is, Ariana Grande and Andy Williams are out. "On the other hand, Brenda Lee’s 'Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ emerged as the most productivity-friendly holiday track.” - Fast Company

“The ‘Goldberg Variations’ was Gehry’s favorite work. He loved its otherworldliness and its worldliness. He loved its invitation to dance and to dream. He loved its astonishing sense of design, complex yet flowing with the ocean’s grace, its depth and its inviting surface.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

“A dozen activists from a liberal Italian party held up Ukrainian and European flags in a quiet demonstration removed from the La Scala hubub that aimed ‘to draw attention to the defense of liberty and European democracy, threatened today by (President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia.’” - Seattle Times (AP)

Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands have all withdrawn from the 2026 competition. The Dutch broadcaster: "After weighing all perspectives, Avrotros concludes that, under the current circumstances, participation cannot be reconciled with the public values that are fundamental to our organisation.” - The Guardian (UK)

Stuck at home in Palo Alto with two parents who teach in Stanford’s music department, Ezra Costanza created the drag character Obsidienne Obsurd, a genderless Chinese-American genderless drag musician with an exuberant wardrobe, makeup palette, and playlist. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

While next weekend’s classical programs are still scheduled, the orchestra’s Holiday Pops shows for the weekend before Christmas and its New Year’s Eve Gala have been called off. - San Antonio Current

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete. - BBC

A soloist was forced to carry her 1782 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin in her arms through the Helsinki airport security and onto a flight to Germany after Lufthansa refused to let her bring the case as hand luggage. - The Daily Beast

I cannot remember a time when there was so much political meddling in music and so little resistance. - The Critic

The conductor joined the company back in 1982 and helped build it into an impressive operation for a city of Sarasota’s size and a company known for having produced every opera Verdi wrote. When DeRenzi departs next May, general director Richard Russell will take on artistic leadership as well. - Observer (Sarasota)

Cellist András Fejér has been with the famed string quartet since its founding exactly 50 years ago. As of next September, Fejér will retire; replacing him will be Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica. - Gramophone

During nearly two hours of argument, the court appeared to be leaning toward the internet companies – perhaps on narrow grounds. - CNN

Canada has been neglecting our (excellent and varied) music scene for the past decade. A post-pandemic evaluation of the government’s Canada Music Fund revealed that revenues are down: album sales fell by nearly 74 percent between 2015 and 2021. - The Walrus

A huge portion of the world’s recorded musical heritage is stored on magnetic tape, used regularly from the 1940s into the digital age to capture musicians’ sounds in the studio. But as analog tape ages, it grows more fragile and vulnerable. - The New York Times

The Australian composer won for her cello concerto A Sutured World, composed for Nicolas Altstaedt and co-commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the Amsterdam Cello Biennale and the Casa da Música Porto in Portugal. - Limelight (Australia)